What Comes up Must Also Come Down: Moldmaking Industry Expansion Slows
Slowed expansion in April is no surprise for the Gardner Business Index (GBI): Moldmaking, which has vacillated between faster and slower rates for the past year. Component readings may suggest an easing of supply chain holdups.
GBI: Moldmaking shifts between accelerated and slowed expansion in short periods of time. April was one month that saw slowed expansion.
The Gardner Business Index (GBI): Moldmaking closed April at 59.8, a low for 2022 following three consecutive months of accelerated expansion. Nevertheless, expansion is still expansion, according to Gardner Business Intelligence, and the moldmaking industry has vacillated between faster and slower rates, resting at an Index reading of around 59 every couple of months for the past year.
If recent history (the past 12 months) repeats itself, the industry can expect one more month of slowed expansion before accelerated expansion kicks in again, though this may change; history’s predictive power has been a bit spotty recently.
For April, supplier deliveries were the highest component reading and employment the lowest. The accelerated rate for employment is a good sign, as is the slowed rate of supplier deliveries expansion which may suggest an easing of supply chain holdups. (This graph is on a three-month moving average.)
While April’s reading represents this year’s low-to-date, it is still higher than almost all readings prior to 2021. This was aided by continued accelerated — or otherwise positive — activity in each and every component, suggesting other factors explain the nearly three-point decline in April’s GBI: Moldmaking.
Supplier deliveries continued on a path of slowed expansion that, combined with continued accelerated expansion of every other component, nets a positive components picture in April. Also, of the four expanding components, new orders and production landed at the highest readings and employment at the lowest.
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